Housing or property? The dynamics of housing policy and property principles in the right to buy

This paper examines the interplay and tension between housing law and policy and property law, in the specific context of the right to buy (RTB). It focuses on funding arrangements between the RTB tenant and another party. It first examines how courts determine the parties' respective entitlements in the home, highlighting the difficulty of categorising, under traditional property law principles, a contribution in the form of the statutory discount conferred on the RTB tenant. Secondly, it considers possible exploitation of the RTB scheme, both at the macro level of exploitation of the policy underpinning the legislation and, at the micro level, of exploitation of the tenant. The measures contained in the Housing Act 2004 intended to curb exploitation of the RTB are analysed to determine what can be considered to be legitimate and illegitimate uses of the scheme. It is argued that, despite the government's implicit approval, certain funding arrangements by non-resident relatives fail to give effect to the spirit of the scheme.

Dynamic group communication for large-scale parallel data mining

Exascale systems are the next frontier in high-performance computing and are expected to deliver a performance of the order of 10^18 operations per second using massive multicore processors. Very large- and extreme-scale parallel systems pose critical algorithmic challenges, especially related to concurrency, locality and the need to avoid global communication patterns. This work investigates a novel protocol for dynamic group communication that can be used to remove the global communication requirement and to reduce the communication cost in parallel formulations of iterative data mining algorithms. The protocol is used to provide a communication-efficient parallel formulation of the k-means algorithm for cluster analysis. The approach is based on a collective communication operation for dynamic groups of processes and exploits non-uniform data distributions. Non-uniform data distributions can be either found in real-world distributed applications or induced by means of multidimensional binary search trees. The analysis of the proposed dynamic group communication protocol has shown that it does not introduce significant communication overhead. The parallel clustering algorithm has also been extended to accommodate an approximation error, which allows a further reduction of the communication costs. The effectiveness of the exact and approximate methods has been tested in a parallel computing system with 64 processors and in simulations with 1024 processing elements.

On the environmental valuation of catastrophe: revisiting mining disasters in the United Kingdom, 1851-1962

In the context of environmental valuation of natural disasters, an important component of the evaluation procedure lies in determining the periodicity of events. This paper explores alternative methodologies for determining such periodicity, illustrating the advantages and the disadvantages of the separate methods and their comparative predictions. The procedures employ Bayesian inference and explore recent advances in computational aspects of mixtures methodology. The procedures are applied to the classic data set of Maguire et al (Biometrika, 1952) which was subsequently updated by Jarrett (Biometrika, 1979) and which comprise the seminal investigations examining the periodicity of mining disasters within the United Kingdom, 1851-1962.

Nationalised large-scale mining, trade unions and community representation: perspectives from Northern Madagascar

This article critically explores the nature and purpose of relationships and inter-dependencies between stakeholders in the context of a parastatal chromite mining company in the Betsiboka Region of Northern Madagascar. An examination of the institutional arrangements at the interface between the mining company and local communities identified power hierarchies and dependencies in the context of a dominant paternalistic environment. The interactions, inter alia, limited social cohesion and intensified the fragility and weakness of community representation, which was further influenced by ethnic hierarchies between the varied community groups; namely, indigenous communities and migrants to the area from different ethnic groups. Moreover, dependencies and nepotism, which may exist at all institutional levels, can create civil society stakeholder representatives who are unrepresentative of the society they are intended to represent. Similarly, a lack of horizontal and vertical trust and reciprocity inherent in Malagasy society engenders a culture of low expectations regarding transparency and accountability, which further catalyses a cycle of nepotism and elite rent-seeking behaviour. On the other hand, leaders retain power with minimal vertical delegation or decentralisation of authority among levels of government and limit opportunities to benefit the elite, perpetuating rent-seeking behaviour within the privileged minority. Within the union movement, pluralism and the associated politicisation of individual unions restricts solidarity, which impacts on the movement’s capacity to act as a cohesive body of opinion and opposition. Nevertheless, the unions’ drive to improve their social capital has increased expectations of transparency and accountability, resulting in demands for greater engagement in decision-making processes.

Data stream mining in ubiquitous environments: state-of-the-art and current directions

In this article, we review the state-of-the-art techniques in mining data streams for mobile and ubiquitous environments. We start the review with a concise background of data stream processing, presenting the building blocks for mining data streams. In a wide range of applications, data streams are required to be processed on small ubiquitous devices like smartphones and sensor devices. Mobile and ubiquitous data mining target these applications with tailored techniques and approaches addressing scarcity of resources and mobility issues. Two categories can be identified for mobile and ubiquitous mining of streaming data: single-node and distributed. This survey will cover both categories. Mining mobile and ubiquitous data require algorithms with the ability to monitor and adapt the working conditions to the available computational resources. We identify the key characteristics of these algorithms and present illustrative applications. Distributed data stream mining in the mobile environment is then discussed, presenting the Pocket Data Mining framework. Mobility of users stimulates the adoption of context-awareness in this area of research. Context-awareness and collaboration are discussed in the Collaborative Data Stream Mining, where agents share knowledge to learn adaptive accurate models.

Pocket data mining - big data on small devices

Owing to continuous advances in the computational power of handheld devices like smartphones and tablet computers, it has become possible to perform Big Data operations including modern data mining processes onboard these small devices. A decade of research has proved the feasibility of what has been termed as Mobile Data Mining, with a focus on one mobile device running data mining processes. However, it is not before 2010 until the authors of this book initiated the Pocket Data Mining (PDM) project exploiting the seamless communication among handheld devices performing data analysis tasks that were infeasible until recently. PDM is the process of collaboratively extracting knowledge from distributed data streams in a mobile computing environment. This book provides the reader with an in-depth treatment on this emerging area of research. Details of techniques used and thorough experimental studies are given. More importantly and exclusive to this book, the authors provide detailed practical guide on the deployment of PDM in the mobile environment. An important extension to the basic implementation of PDM dealing with concept drift is also reported. In the era of Big Data, potential applications of paramount importance offered by PDM in a variety of domains including security, business and telemedicine are discussed.

Site-specific and geographical segmental social, environmental and ethical disclosures by the Ghanaian mining sector

Purpose: This paper explores the extent of site-specific and geographic segmental social, environmental and ethical reporting by mining companies operating in Ghana. We aim to: (i) establish a picture of corporate transparency relating to geographic segmentation of social, environmental and ethical reporting which is specific to operating sites and country of operation, and; (ii) gauge the impact of the introduction of integrated reporting on site-specific social, environmental and ethical reporting. Methodology/Approach: We conducted an interpretive content analysis of the annual/integrated reports of mining companies for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 in order to extract site-specific social, environmental and ethical information relating to the companies’ mining operations in Ghana. Findings and Implications: We found that site-specific social, environmental and ethical reporting is extremely patchy and inconsistent between the companies’ reports studied. We also found that there was no information relating to certain sites, which were in operation, according to the Ghana Minerals Commission. This could simply be because operations were not in progress. Alternatively it could be that decisions are made concerning which site-specific information is reported according to a certain benchmark. One policy implication arising from this research is that IFRS should require geographic segmental reporting of material social, environmental and ethical information in order to bring IFRS into line with global developments in integrated reporting. Originality: Although there is a wealth of sustainability reporting research and an emergent literature on integrated reporting, there is currently no academic research exploring site-specific social, environmental and ethical reporting

What is the right balance for performance and isolation with virtualization in HPC?

The use of virtualization in high-performance computing (HPC) has been suggested as a means to provide tailored services and added functionality that many users expect from full-featured Linux cluster environments. The use of virtual machines in HPC can offer several benefits, but maintaining performance is a crucial factor. In some instances the performance criteria are placed above the isolation properties. This selective relaxation of isolation for performance is an important characteristic when considering resilience for HPC environments that employ virtualization. In this paper we consider some of the factors associated with balancing performance and isolation in configurations that employ virtual machines. In this context, we propose a classification of errors based on the concept of “error zones”, as well as a detailed analysis of the trade-offs between resilience and performance based on the level of isolation provided by virtualization solutions. Finally, a set of experiments are performed using different virtualization solutions to elucidate the discussion.

A longitudinal study of carbon disclosure strategy: evidence from utility, energy and mining industries in the UK

The paper investigates how energy-intensive industries respond to the recent government-led carbon emission schemes through the content analysis of 306 annual and standalone reports of 25 UK listed companies from 2004 to 2012. This period of reporting captures the trend and development of corporate disclosures on carbon emissions after the launch of EU Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) and Climate Change Act (CCA) 2008. It is found that in corresponding to strategic legitimacy theory, there is an increase in both the quality and quantity of carbon disclosures as a response to these initiatives. However, the change is gradual, which reflects in the achievement of peak disclosure period two years after the launch. It indicates that the new legislations have a lasting impact on the discourses rather than an immediate legitimacy threat from the perspective of institutional legitimacy theory. The results also show that carbon disclosures are an institutionalised practice as companies in the same industries and/or with same carbon trading account status appear to imitate and adopt the industry’s ‘best practice’ disclosure strategy to maintain legitimacy. The trend analysis suggests that the overall disclosure practice is still in its infant stage, especially in the reporting of quantitative and monetary items. The paper contributes to the social and environmental accounting literature by adopting both strategic and institutional view of legitimacy, which explains why carbon disclosures evolve in a specific way to meet the expectation of various stakeholders.

Support for the far right in the 2014 European Parliament Elections: a comparative perspective

The May 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections were characterised by the success of far-right Eurosceptic parties, including the French Front National, UKIP, the Danish People’s Party, the Hungarian Jobbik, the Austrian FPÖ, the True Finns and the Greek Golden Dawn. However, a closer look at the results across Europe indicates that the success of far-right parties in the EP elections is neither a linear nor a clear-cut phenomenon: (1) the far right actually declined in many European countries compared to the 2009 results; (2) some of the countries that have experienced the worst of the economic crisis, including Spain, Portugal and Ireland, did not experience a significant rise in far-right party support; and (3) ‘far right’ is too broad an umbrella term, covering parties that are too different from each other to be grouped in one single party family.

The Golden Dawn's 'nationalist solution': explaining the rise of the far right in Greece

The book is concerned with the rise of the Greek Golden Dawn. Although most literature focuses on demand and supply-side explanations, this book progresses beyond the state of the art by examining the Golden Dawn as an outlier and focusing on political culture as an explanation for its dramatic rise.

En attendant Sarko? France’s mainstream Right and Centre, 2012-2014

In winning the municipal elections of March 2014, France’s mainstream opposition – the Centrists and the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) – benefited not only from the unpopularity of the Left in power, but also from its own (partial) reconstruction. The Centrists had reorganised; the UMP had reaffirmed its right-wing programme and drawn strength from the opposition social movements launched in 2013. The European elections of 2014, however, demonstrated the limitations of this reconstruction. Their weak institutionalisation – the original sin of France’s Right and centre-Right – left internal ideological differences and (above all) personal rivalries unchecked within both forces. These tensions were compounded, in the UMP, by a series of financial scandals. At their heart was former president Nicolas Sarkozy, still the activists’ darling, ever more clearly a candidate for 2017, but also more hobbled by judicial investigations.